Feeling bereft of their shepherd, the people persuade Aaron, Moses’ brother, to create a golden calf. This substitute for Moses is a visual expression of divine guidance. Perhaps they envisage it as a pedestal for the divine (just as God communicates with Moses from above the cherubim on the ark, see Exodus 25.22). But God is not pleased! He describes the people as stiff-necked, a metaphor for obstinacy, probably derived from farmers’ experiences of work animals (think toddler refusing to be strapped into a car seat!). We are presented here with the idea that even God succumbs to red-hot anger.
Moses ignores the inducement to go it alone (v.10), and fights on behalf of the people God has made him responsible for (note the ‘your people’ in v.7). He is determined to remind God of the covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Israel. God starts by trying to shake Moses off – ‘now let me alone’ (v.10) – but then changes his mind. God reverts to his ultimate characteristics of mercy, steadfast love and faithfulness (34.6). Moses, however, is not informed of this change of heart; until he is eventually told (34.9), he goes on thinking that everything is still to play for.
Gospel: Luke 15.1-10
The passage begins with ‘all the tax collectors and sinners’. Amy-Jill Levine reminds us that these were ‘the ancient drug pushers, insider traders, arms dealers, and, especially, colonial collaborationists’ (A J Levine, Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi, Harper Collins, 2014, p.34, ISBN 978 0061561030.). No wonder the scribes and Pharisees grumbled. Even St Paul tells the Corinthians not to eat with anyone ‘who is sexually immoral or greedy, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or robber’ (1 Corinthians 5.11).
There is a challenge here for all of us. Jesus tells a series of three parables, although the third (usually entitled ‘the prodigal son’) is not included in the lectionary reading this week. The first is about a shepherd searching for a lost sheep, and it gives us an opportunity to notice different takes on the same parable:
- For Matthew (18.10-14), it is about the Church’s responsibility to care for those of its members who go astray.
- For Luke, it is about sinners who repent. This gives us the freedom to develop our own interpretations. There is no need to assume that the shepherd automatically stands for God, although that is one fruitful avenue. There is plenty of precedent in the Old Testament for straying sheep to represent sinners (Psalm 119.176; Isaiah 53.6; Jeremiah 50.6), and for God to be portrayed as a shepherd (Psalm 23.1; Ezekiel 34.15).
Together these two parables would then present both male and female images of God (although of course women can also be shepherds!). However, it is worth noting that the shepherd/woman were responsible for their losses in the first place. The parables then become about taking responsibility, and setting out to rectify one’s mistakes. They are stories, perhaps, about leadership. Luke emphasises the joy on finding the sheep/coin. Sometimes it takes the threat of losing something to realise how precious it is.
The links between the readings
The readings are linked by the theme of taking responsibility. The shepherd and the woman take responsibility for what they have lost, and go out in search of it. Moses takes responsibility for the people who have strayed in his absence. Luke understands the parables to be about sinners who repent.
In Exodus, the people sin, but it is God who repents. We may feel that this is a somewhat ‘primitive’ understanding of God. We are generally more comfortable with a ‘philosophical’ God, one whose mood is constant – compassionate, yes, angry, no. But the Exodus portrayal captures something of what many people experience – and it hands to us the responsibility of intercessory prayer.